Tuesday, June 29, 2010

It finally rained a bit on Saturday, and a bit more on Sunday. Sunday morning (8:00) we took Brandy to Cherry Creek. It was so beautiful, it look almost green from the recent rain. We saw a magistic crane(bird) and Brandy got a good swim. When we took her home and gave her a bath. She refused to be in the same room we were in for the rest of the day. If we were in the bedroom she went the living room, if we went the living room she retreated to the bedroom. I got bitten pretty good by the mosquitoes, but then Leslee gave me some hand santizer to put on the bites, and that solved the problem. We spent a lot of time in the garden on Saturday. Paul worked on his squirrel trap and I weeded the little garden. The raspberries have not recovered from the transplanting, but the rosemary and tomatoes are doing rather well, and the lady we got the raspberries from gave us some chive and that is doing well. The best news is the basil is thriving. I love the way the basil smells. Paul has been working on the tile for the front entry all week, he hopes to be done by the end of the week. If he finished we are going to go camping this weekend.

Friday afternoon so hot and it did not look like a very promising TV night, so I went downstairs to get away from the heat and to see if I could find a good book. The book I settled on was Answer As a Man by Taylor Caldwell (books downstairs are going to be at least 20 years old). It was a pretty good read. I did not like the end (but I usually don't). For the most part the book was really interesting. It could have been written about the world today rather that 1900. It was one of those book that makes you question your own beliefs. I did have to use my dictionary alot. The book review I read said: "One of Caldwell's better novels, Answer As A Man touches on most of her recurring themes - the conspiracy behind governments to incite wars for profit and to install taxation to create a form of slavery. She also continues to stress than man can be evil and God cruel."

On a different note, our cactus did bloom this year, but not a good as last year. We have been ignoring it in the hopes that it would die on its own, but so far it is hanging on.

I have been feeling rather disjointed lately and I have been waiting until I felt a little more put together to write, but it now appears that it will be a while so, I might as well go ahead and say a few words.

Over the weekend Paul decide we needed a squirrel cage to trap our tree rats. I told him that if he was going to get a squirrel cage it was only fair that I got a few raspberry bushes. He reminded me that we can't even grow grass in our semi arid climate. So, I asked him what he thought the changes were that he would actually catch a squirrel. I made my point. We had to go all the way to Wheatridge. Why can't anything be close? Anyway we took the dog and made it a day trip. So, far we have not got a squirrel and the rasberries don't look all that healthy.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

The state is so dry and hot right now, and there will be no rain any time soon according to the weather reports. So,I am feeling a bit wasteful because it took so many gallons of water to fill the pool. Instructions say the pool uses 500 gallons when it is full. It is not quite full but the pool does use a lot of water! Anyway, here is a picture of Paul and Brandy taking a quick dip. I am also posting a shot of tonight's sunset. Some evenings the sky seems to be on fire.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

I miss my lilac bush. Someone needs to come up with a bush that looks and smells like a lilac, but that blooms all summer long. Here is a quick shot of the veggie garden I planted. This year we have rosemary, basil and tomatoes. I also planted strawberries over by the lilac bush, but I am worried about them, I don't have a single bloom.

It seems like ages since we got any rain, but my blog says we got rain on the 12th. It seems like such along time ago. I think it has been in the nineties everyday since it rain. It is only June and it feels like August.

We had a coupon for Sam's club so we though we would try to get one of those shirts with the magnets on the pockets, alas, the only color available was a bright yellow. Even Paul has enough fashion sense not to wear yellow, sweat pants, yes, yellow no.

We ended up getting a Sam's membership. I guess we will giving up our Costco membership in October. It is a sad thing. We got a tent that is big enough for eight and you are suppose to put up in 3 minutes. The plan was that we would go camping this weekend. But Paul decided at the last minute he did not want to go an hear Abby talk, so I told him I wouldn't go camping with him this weekend. I kind of want to go camping, and punishing someone for bad behavior rarely achieves anything.

I am planning a small get together for the 4th. Paul wanted to go camping because Brandy had such a hard time with the fire crackers last year. I think if we have company she will be to busy to care. I wanted to invite dogs too, but Paul does not want other dogs. We are still dicussing.

We exchanged the tile we got at the Depot for tile as Sam's Club. The stuff we got at Home Depot had gray tints in it. The new stuff has specks of red in it. It's a better match for the area and is was a bit cheaper ($.46),

Over the weekend we also got a 12 foot diameter above ground swimming pool that needs to be assembled (Wal-Mart). Seems like we are buying Paul a lot of 'toys.' this year. We have twice the stuff we had a year ago. We will never be able to move again because we have too much stuff..unless we sell it to the understuffed.

Paul has worked really hard this year on the house so I guess he is entitled to a few toys. Paul could not figure out exactly what was wrong with the Lexus last week. At the last minute he decide to take it to Midas and have a diagnosic test done before he made any repairs. Good thing he did because their machine showed that we needed a new radiator cap. Midas did not charge for the test, only five dollars for the new cap. When did mechanics get honest?

Monday, June 21, 2010

Billings, Mont. – In the wake of yesterday’s tornado in Billings it leaves behind a considerable amount of cleanup and repair as well as concern for upcoming events at MetraPark. At approximately 4:20 pm, a tornado touched down at MetraPark and hovered for several minutes over the Rimrock Auto Arena. The intensity of the storm ripped a substantial amount of the roof off the 10,000-seat arena, while destroying a majority of the trees around the facility. Montana Governor Brian Switzer toured the area and is expected to declare it an emergency, which will allow for access to funding for cleanup.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Last Saturday Paul and I went to the hardware store and picked out tile for the downstairs bathroom. Because it was the a basement bathroom we got the cheapest tile we could find ($.57 a tile). We don't want to over improve for the area. Paul spent all day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday installing tile and hanging a new door in the bathroom. We got the toliet back in yesterday and we were planning on putting the washer in dryer back today, but I still have to paint the grout with the stuff that makes it water resistant (can't remember what it is called) This is my contribution because Paul doesn't have the patience to paint lines and I don't mind.

We have not tackled the shower, yet. We are thinking of taking out the small closet and adding a bathtub. We can only go out 30" and that is an very small shower, but if we take out the closet we think we can get 60" which is big enough for a tub.

While we were at the Depot we also got 18" tile to put right outside the front door. We were going to have the cement repaired, but tiling over the cement will fix the problem and we like tile. I would have picked a darker color, but Paul like the tile we got and he is the installer.

We had to put the bathroom and the front stoop on hold because we have been having an issue with the Lexus. At first Paul thought it was the head casket, but now he thinks it is the water pumb. Anyway, he is spending the day (and probably tomorrow)working on the Lexus. Good to be married.

We got a pretty good rain over the weekend, but then the rest of the week has been in the 90's. I am posting a picture of the new and improved grass, before the heat destorys the improvement. We are suppose to have high winds today...

Monday, June 14, 2010

We agreed earlier this year that we would be concentrating on landscaping this summer. But we are discouraged with our progress and we are both feeling a bit inadequate.

I did borrowed Sarah's rotatiller last week and Paul did rotatill some, just not not every bad spont. I guess Rome was not built in a day and it is going to take us a couple of years to get the landscaping right.

I did go out and rake through grass on Sunday hoping to de-thatch a bit of dead grass while Paul concentrated on the bathroom downstairs. We went to home depot and picked out tile, found out that our vanity (26") was not a standard size. I tried to talk Paul into buying a 24" vanity, but he thinks that 26" is already too small, and we don't have the space to go bigger.

We think we can put a sandard size tub if we loss the closet, but Paul wants to see how much work it would take to put and tub with jets in downstairs. I have learn not to to criticize. A hot tub would be nice after a hard day of weeding.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Here is the picture of the entertainment center. Yes, the room looks kind of crowded. Lawn is perking up, I will post a pictue of the lawn in a few days. It is suppose to rain this weekend. I and the lawn can hardly wait.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

We had a pretty productive day yesterday. I finished my novel and weeded a tad. Paul used Sarah's rotatiller on the front lawn and then reseeded the patchie parts, we are ever hopeful.

Then we got the entertaiment center up and running! I wished I took a before picture, but alas I did not, but the new one looks so much better! I though it would take us a couple of years to out grow the house, but we have already reached the point where our possessions are bigger than the house.

I took a picture of the entertainment center, but it was blurry, so I will have to post tonight.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

One of the advantages of having a house is having room to have books on bookselves rather than in boxes. So, whenever there is a bad TV night, like last night I am able to go to the bookself and pick up a book I have never read, or one I have read, but is good enough that I want to re-read. It is amazing how many books I have that I honestly don't remember reading. Yesterday, around four I picked up a book called "The True Story of Hansel and Gretel" by Louise Murphy.

Amazon review states: The stepmother persuades the father to abandon the children in the forest, where they find shelter in the cottage of a witch, who locks them in a cage. It's the scariest of all fairy tales, and it's retold here with gripping realism as a Holocaust novel set in Poland near the end of World War II. Murphy brings the genocide history up close through the horrifying daily experience of 11-year-old Jewish Gretel and her younger brother, who save each other from the worst with the help of a few brave villagers. The Grimms' story is always there like a dark shadow intensifying the drama as the searing narrative transforms the old archetypes. The stepmother and the Romani witch are quiet heroes who sacrifice themselves to save the children, while their father is with the partisan army, desperate to find his family. The children may follow the trail home in the end, but the gruesome reality in the village and the forest prevents any sentimental uplift. The witch does land up in the oven, in a concentration camp.

I was still reading at eleven, I had to force myself to put it down, I don't know the ending, I am only about three-fourths through, but it was really hard to put down.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Well summer is finally here. We waited and waited, and now it is here and I am so miserable! I spent most of yesterday sleeping (my way of coping with the heat). We ran the air conditioner all day and that did make us feel a little cooler, but it caused my bones to ache. I laided down to take a short nap around five and slept until morning. I do feel pretty perky this morning.

On Saturday (while I was suppose to be walking in the Heartwalk) I found an entertainment center on Craigslist. We have been looking for one for over a year so we are pretty happy we found on that we both like.

I finish "I Loved, I Lost, I made Spaghetti." In the book she reveiws a book that one of her boyfriend wrote and she says, "I have read better, but then again I have read worse." I think that what should have said about her own story.

I finish another book that was much better over the weekend. I could not remember the name, but with the help of the internet I found it. It was called "East of the Mountain, by David Guterson. It was about a man who has cancer and decides to kill himself rather than suffer.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Have I mention yet, that I had to give up the treadmill for about a week because my varicose veins were getting so bad and the ones under my knee calf were starting to hurt, weirdly enough they felt like bug bits, but internet inquiries showed that that is one of the symptons of bulging varicose veins. I could have told you that by just looking at them.

I am trying to do more upper arm excerising (called de-thatching the front lawn with a rake). I did go back to treadmill, today, hence the title of this posting. I did go much slower (3.5 miles per hour) so that is the compromise.

I am planning on walking my first 5K walk this weekend for the Heartwalk, so far I have no sponsors (except I will probably make a small donation). I hope they are okay with that. This will be my fund raiser.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Over the weekend Debbie L. and I went shopping and I got a rosemary tree and two basil plants for the back yard. Debbie and I both got new wigs. I got one that only cover the top of the head and is suppose to blend with the rest of the hair. It is only meant to cover the gray roots on the top of the head. I kind of have buyers remorse because I think it will be too hot and Paul is total pissed off that I bought it without consulting him first (opps). I had to special order it because of the color and it is suppose to be in by Thursday.

We took Brandy to the dog park one day and spent another day exploring the neighborhood (sans Brandy). Paul and I both got at least one hour exercise everyday since Friday. I didn't even have to fire up the Wii.

Saturday I went to Ace Hardware and spent over $100 on the front yard. Sunday I put on some kind of granules that is suppose to break down to soil, then I watered it really good. On Monday I water it again, pull some weeds, then I took a small hand rake and tried to break down the dead grass thatching. I spent most of yesterday trying to improve the front yard and today, my arms are really hurting.

I think today after work I will be de-thatching, again. Then I will apply feed and weed wait a day or two, then apply one of the two patch grass kits I got at Ace. The internet was not really very helpful with pointing what went wrong with our grass, but the small amount of research I did do mention that if we had a an insect issue we would have birds feeding on them. We had no birds on the lawn trying to eat our bugs. So, I don't think it was a insect problem. I still don't know what caused the grass to die and that is pretty unsettling. How do you fix a problem when you are not sure of the cause?